"Zika has not gone away," says Dr. Pritish Tosh, an infectious diseases specialist at Mayo Clinic. "Even though we’re talking less about Zika in the news — mostly because we’re not seeing as many cases as we did during the summer months — those cases are still trickling in. And the main concern is, of course, when things start to warm up, that we will likely see a resurgence, and potentially a continuation in the geographic spread of where Zika is now endemic in very small areas within the U.S."

"My hope is that we have a Zika vaccine that is ready before any potential spread of Zika throughout the rest of the U.S.," says Dr. Tosh. "My concern is that we may not have that, in which case the real area of protection is making sure that pregnant women are not traveling to areas with ongoing Zika transmission. Also, if they are living in an area with ongoing Zika transmission, they should be very careful about avoiding mosquito bites and getting rid of standing water within their home to avoid harboring mosquitoes, such as the Aedes aegypti that tend to live very close to human homes."

Zika virus, which can be passed from a pregnant woman to her fetus, has been linked to microcephaly, a birth defect that affects head size.It is primarily transmitted by the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito (Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus).